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Thursday, January 22, 2015

CSM Minutes, Day 1 and 2

If you're not aware, the CSM Winter Summit is going on RIGHT NOW.

CCP is releasing the minutes from each daily session in (nearly) real time. Although there's perhaps less detail, getting the info so quickly is much better (imho) over waiting weeks and months to see what was discussed. Said another way, I'll take a 90% solution in near real time rather than a 99% solution ages later.

The very first session of Day 1 (Roadmap and Release Schedule) is pretty interesting. When the Incarna Trainwreck happened, I really never thought I'd be reading words from CCP about their dev philosophy and nodding my head in agreement. I guess that makes me a fanboy. Oh well. :)

I'm reading the Day 2 minutes as I type, so let me grab a few snippets relevant to my interests (i.e. PVE, missions, etc.). I'll snip out most of the quotes to just the bare essentials. Go read the full minutes for the full detail version.

All of this is from the Team Space Glitter session.

CCP Affinity asked the CSM how they thought about NPCs podding players. The CSM were open to the idea. ...

CCP Affinity indicated that they would likely introduce it, but with a twist. Mike asked if they plan to announce they're making a change to NPCs to allow them to do so. CCP Affinity answered that no, they do not. (If you're reading this, consider yourself lucky!)

Yikes! Poding NPCs? Scary. (And yes, I like the idea in principle).

CCP Frellicus then showed some Circadian Seekers and the Behaviour tree in action. The CSM noticed that when spawned, they all warped to the same location. CCP Affinity pointed out that this was their blackboard in action, they behave like a fleet. (A blackboard is a way for them to share their intentions with each other. They have a shared blackboard where if one of the NPCs posts a location or primary target, they will behave like a well organised fleet following their FCs commands.)

This sounds cool. NPCs that behave as a group. Tools like this could be a nice breath of fresh air in the PVE world.

There was further discussions about the potential of the behaviour trees and what it would allow them to do. ....

Progod brought up the topic of improving the existing mission content. CCP Affinity responded that it would be better to wait for new content tools to be finished before tackling any changes to existing mission content. Progod also brought up that improving the missions was important as it's one of the early things that new players commonly participate in. ...

Another mention of the new PVE tools. Hopefully they're coming along soon. Progress on these tools (and burners) are what has me reading the minutes.

Also note, I'm seeing references to CCP TomB. This is a name I recognize from the very very early days. I don't pay particular attention to the comings and goings of CCP staff, but I had assumed that he'd departed the company long ago. I had to stop and read a few sentences a few times as I digested his name. Glad to see he's still around.

There is some detail that I'm not seeing that I'm looking for - content that I hope will be hashed out in Days 3 or 4. I guess I'll just wait longer. :)

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